The Wizard of Oz Series Finale
by WogglebugLoveProductions
Summary: Gives a proper ending to the 1990 Dic Wizard of Oz cartoon series. The Wogglebug coms in to rescue the Wizard who learns to practice real magic. Then they unite with Dorothy and her three friends as they prepare for their final confrontation with the Wicked Witch of the West.
1. Chapter 1

Dorothy and her three companions had chased the Wizard of Oz in his balloon all day and now the sun was just beginning to set. A while ago, the tiny dot they could see of him had completely disappeared into the distance. Now they were all quite tired and weary.

"Aw, phooey!" grumbled the Lion irritably." He's gone! It's no use use now!"

"I hope he is alright, wherever he is," said the Tin Man.

"Well, we might just as well give up, for now at least," said the Scarecrow. "Dorothy is tired now. Aren't you, Dorothy?"

"I sure am," admitted Dorothy. "Let's make our camp here and rest."

Toto whimpered next to her, and then yawned in agreement.

So they made their camp. The Tin Man built a fire to keep them warm. They all gathered around it, and the Scarecrow sat a little ways behind the Tin Man for the sake of his safety.

They began to reflect on their long journey through the Land of Oz, and mission to save the Wizard.

"It seems like we've just been on a wild ostrich chase all this time!" the Lion grumbled.

"You mean a wild goose chase, Lion," corrected the Scarecrow, "and, yes. We do seem to just keep going around in circles."

"And triangles, and squares, and rectangles, and pentagons, and hexagons, and..."

"We get the idea, Lion!" exclaimed the Scarecrow in annoyance. He sighed with despair. "At least I think we do. It's hard to tell when one does not have a brain."

"I just wish this journey would come to its end soon!" Dorothy complained. "It seems like it's been forever since I returned to Oz from my home in Kansas."

Dorothy remembered how when she had come home from Oz for the first time, and told everyone in her house about her adventures and no one believed her. They insisted they had found her lying in her bed the whole time. While she never stopped thinking about Oz, and her three friends she had found there, she began to wonder for herself if it had all been a dream. After all, she had never found any trace of the Ruby Slippers, which had been a token symbol of her entire journey through Oz.

_Then, one fateful evening as she lay asleep in her bed, she had been awakened by Toto's frantic barking. He seemed as if he had seen or heard something unusual._

"_What is it, Toto? What's happened?" she asked._

_She quickly got out of bed. She followed Toto to her bedroom closet. There she saw a mysterious red glow coming from the floor of it. Then, on opening the door, she gasped in surprise and delight. She saw her Ruby Slippers! They were just there, as if they had been awaiting for her to come to them._

_She then knew at once that her adventures in Oz had all been real. Then she remembered her dear friends again. She thought about how she missed them and wanted to see them again. She then reasoned that if the Ruby Slippers could bring her home to Kansas from Oz, then they could just as easily bring her back to Oz._

_She put the Ruby Slippers onto her feet, and clicked the heels together three times._

"_There's no place like Oz!" she chanted. "There's no place like Oz!"_

_She began to feel the room spin and whirl around her, as if she were caught in a cyclone again. _

_There was a bright flash of light. Then she found she was standing in the exact same place she had been in when she had first come to Oz. _

_She looked up, and found her three old friends right there before her._

"_It's Dorothy! She came back!" they all exclaimed in unison. _

_The next moment all three of them were embracing her with tremendous happiness. Dorothy laughed happily as she tried to hug all three of them at the same time._

"_I'm so glad to see you all again!" she gushed._

"_We've missed you so terribly much also, Dorothy!" said the Tin Man, through his tears of joy._

"_We were so afraid we would never get to see you again!" exclaimed the Lion._

_The Scarecrow nodded his agreements with the others. Then he added, "I think I'm the one who missed you most of all, actually."_

"_I've missed you, too! All of you, honestly!" exclaimed Dorothy. "How have you been? I'm sure you've all been ruling the Emerald City wisely and well, of course."_

_The Scarecrow's face suddenly took on a very sad look. "I was... for a little while. But not anymore. For one can never be expected to rule anything wisely without a brain... and I don't have one anymore!"_

"_You don't? But that is impossible!" exclaimed Dorothy in disbelief._

"_It's true, I'm afraid," said the Scarecrow sadly. "The Wicked Witch of the West has robbed me of my diploma."_

"_And my heart, also!" added the Tin Man tearfully._

"_And... not to mention... my medal of courage!" added the Lion miserably._

"_But she couldn't possibly have!" Dorothy exclaimed with shock. "I melted her, didn't I?" _

"_Yes, you did... But she was brought back to life," said the Scarecrow. "We don't know how she was. But that was what happened."_

"_Oh no! How dreadful!" exclaimed Dorothy, even more shocked than before._

"_But how did you come back, Dorothy?" asked the Tin Man curiously._

"_I just found the Ruby Slippers in my closet. Did you send them to me?" asked Dorothy._

"_No. We don't know who, or what, sent them to you," admitted the Scarecrow. "But nonetheless, you've certainly come back at the time right time!"_

"Saving the Emerald City was easier than saving the Wizard," Dorothy said reflectively. She took out her locket to look at the picture inside of it. "Auntie Em and Uncle Henry must be so worried about me, just as I'm so worried about them."

"Miranda must be worried about me, too," said the Tin Man, thinking of his sweetheart. "Not a day has gone by that I haven't thought of her."

He remembered the day he had found her again, just as if it had been yesterday.

_He and Miranda stood with their backs to each other and then a mechanical mailman came up to them, tipped his hat, and gave them each a pink envelope._

"_Why Tin Man, it's from you!" exclaimed Miranda._

"_And this is from you!" he said with equal astonishment._

"_Does this mean you might stay in Mechanica?" Miranda asked him hopefully._

"_Oh I'd love to," he said. "But first we have a witch to vanquish, and when we do, I'll have a heart to give you."_

_They embraced lovingly. Up until then he was sure his heart had been stolen, but now maybe Miranda had just given it back to him._

"Remember I promised her I'd come back to Mechanica and stay with her once we had vanquished the Wicked Witch, and I intend to keep my promise," he declared.

"I also got a promise to keep," said the Lion. "Remember after I out roared the laughing hyena I promised all the animals in the forest I'd come back and be their King again once our job was done."

_The birds draped a velvet cloak around him and placed a crown on his head._

"_Yes, I am King of the forest!" he sang. "Not a Prince, not a Queen, not a Duke! I out roared the laughing hyena! I'm leaner, I'm meaner! I'm King of the forest!"_

"_The Wizard was right," said the Scarecrow. "It's what you say, not how you say it that really matters."_

"_You really are the bravest of them all, Lion," Dorothy said as she went up to him and hugged him and kissed him on his cheek._

"_Ain't it the truth! Ain't it the truth!" he said, beaming with pride._

_The animals of the forest, a tiger, a bear, and a rabbit, bowed low to him._

"_Your Majesty," spoke the tiger. "We will serve you loyally for as long as you shall rule over our forest."_

"_That's nice," he said modestly. "But a king also has duties to fulfill, and I must be with my friends until we have knocked over the Witch of the West for good, and then I shall return to you. Until then, my subjects, accept no substitutes."_

"_We won't!" they promised in unison._

"I wish the old witch would just give up so we could finish her off!" he said, balling up his paws.

"Of course I'm never sure of anything," admitted the Scarecrow. "But I think the Wicked Witch might have been weakened after flying through the rain when she escaped last time. So she can't do much harm now and if we just keep going straight we're bound to catch up to the Wizard somehow someday."

"How sensible!" said Dorothy. "You're right, Scarecrow. We're no match for the Wicked Witch if we keep together and stay on the right path, and as long as I have the Ruby Slippers no harm can come to us. And the Emerald Star is shining so the Wizard is alright."

"Well, there will be plenty of time of that tomorrow," said the Lion with a wide yawn. "Now let's turn in for the night."

So they did and Dorothy laid against the Lion and fell asleep with the Scarecrow and Tin Man keeping watch.

Meanwhile at the Witch's castle the Witch was in fitful spirits as the Wicked West Wind which she had long ago conjured to keep the Wizard away from Oz had just arrived and was coughing, wheezing, and sneezing up a storm.

"Blast!" the Witch screamed with infuriation. "Blast it! The Wicked West Wind just had to chase the Wizard through those cold mountains and catch a cold, didn't it! Now what am I supposed do?"

Truckle, the leader of the Winged Monkeys, who was engrossed in devouring a large piece of chocolate pie said dismissively, "Um, I don't know. What are you supposed to do?"

He seemed to make the Witch even more furious as she promptly smacked him in the face and caused him to shove his pie all over his mouth and nose.

"Stupid monkey brain!" she screamed at him, as she often did. "I'll just have to take matters into my own hands and make sure the Wizard never reaches the Emerald City and the little Dorothy brat and her wretched friends off the yellow brick road! Where is my book of spells!?"

As Truckle wiped the chocolate and whip cream off his face he thought to himself, _Why did we ever have to bring her back to life? Why?_

He remembered it like it was yesterday...

_All the Winged Monkeys had gathered up the Witch's clothes and had placed them onto a statue of her they had made out of rocks and sticks in the middle of the Haunted Forest._

"_Remind me again why we are doing this? He asked one of his fellows._

"_Because we are bored," he said._

_After laying the Witch's cape onto the statue they placed her hat onto the head and then the broomstick into her left hand. Then all together they chanted the spell that would resurrect her._

"_Hillow! Hollow! Heel-ow! From beneath the earth's domain, down below the goblins realm, beneath the dragon's breath of fire, rise up by the nature of all evil and immoral, shrieking ghosts, billowing ghouls, roaming specters, bring up our Wickedest Witch to us!"_

_The statue began glowing and the limbs began to move and take form and then with a sudden blasting of light the Wicked Witch of the West appeared before them in all her evil glory._

"_I'm baaaaaacckk!" she shrieked, cackling with glee. "Dorothy Gale will be at my mercy and the Ruby Slippers will be mine, all mine!"_

_He was just about to take a big bite of his double-decker salami sandwich when she called out to him, "Truckle, gather up all the Winkies!" _

_She then whacked him hard with her broomstick just like she used to do._

Truckle rubbed his backside remembering that day and thought perhaps what they had done was not such a good idea after all.

The next morning the Wizard found himself floating through the sky with an unusual easiness as the wind was very calm with the Wicked West Wind nowhere in sight. This gave him time to think about his previous adventures.

"I should have known Miss Zepplin was the Wicked Witch of the West in disguise," he said reflectively to himself. "Though I wish I could have stayed in Balloonia, it does get tiresome being up here alone all the time. Why didn't I stay on the ground when I had the chance all those times? Oh, that's right, because Glinda put a spell on my balloon so the Wicked Witch couldn't see me in her crystal ball as long as I am in it. But still, I wish... I wish... I wish... Oh my!"

All of a sudden he found his balloon was falling downward from the sky, and quite fast. Either he hadn't escaped pincushion peak as well as he had thought, or the hot air in his balloon had simply run out.

"My... Oh my!... Oh my!... Oh my!... Oh my! I've got to be more careful of what I wish for!" he exclaimed as his balloon continued to plummet to the ground below.

"May day! May day!" he exclaimed as he fell down through thin trees and his balloon was ripped up in the process.

Finally he came down to a soft landing, but his relief was gone quickly as he suddenly felt himself sinking within his basket. He looked over and saw to his dismay he was in a pit full of quicksand.

"My... Oh my! I never wished for anything like this! Help! Help!" he cried out.

"Here! Grab hold of the end of my walking stick!" called out a voice from above him.

He at once grabbed hold of the end of a wooden cane that appeared in front of him and as he did so he climbed to the edge of the basket and kept grabbing onto the cane until he was pulled free of the quicksand.

When he was able to let go of the cane he found its owner standing before him who was a very strange looking person wearing a stylish set of clothes and a tall silk hat set between antennae.

"Oh thank you ever so much!" said the Wizard gratefully. Then as he looked at his rescuer he asked hesitantly, "Um... I don't want to sound cheeky, but may I ask what you are?"

The stranger smiled broadly as he tipped his hat and replied, "I am a wogglebug. Mr. H.M. Wogglebug T.E., at your service!"

"Hmm.. May I ask what H.M. stands for?"

"H.M. means Highly Magnified," he replied/

"Well, I must say you are several thousand times larger than any other wogglebug I've ever seen," replied the Wizard. "May I ask also what the T.E. at the end of your name stands for?"

"Those letters express my degree, they mean that I am thoroughly educated," he replied with a condescending smile.

"Well, I say! You must be very proud!" said the Wizard in amazement.

"I am," replied Mr. Wogglebug.

"Well, now I must introduce myself, I am-"

"Oscar Zoroaster Diggs, the Wizard of Oz, originally from Omaha, Nebraska," said Mr. Wogglebug calmly.

The Wizard was completely shocked. No one knew his name, or where he was from. "How did you know?"

"Like I said, I am thoroughly educated," replied Mr. Wogglebug smiling. "Which was why I was sent to you. Now I cannot tell you exactly where I'm from or how I got here, and even if I could you most likely wouldn't believe me."

The Wizard had watched the remainder of his balloon basket sink beneath the quicksand. "Well, I suppose now I must travel on foot with you, my friend. Now we must try to find-"

"Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and Lion," Mr. Wogglebug said, once again finishing his sentence for him.

"You seem to know everything!" said the Wizard, astonished.

"Oh no, I don't know everything," Mr. Wogglebug said quickly. "No one knows everything. I do know about you and your friends and that we are now in the Southern country of the Land of the Gilikins. I don't know exactly where your friends are, but I can lead you to them and as you've seen I am a smart one to have when you're in a sticky spot," here he chuckled lightly. "Now come with me to see a good friend of mine who will provide you with something of great importance to you."


	2. Chapter 2

The Wizard walked with the Wogglebug who kept smiling and every once in a while would twirl the end of his cane. They were traveling through a forest which seemed to become thinner the farther they went and the Wizard became more curious.

"Can you tell me where it is you are wanting us to go?" he asked.

"To see Locasta, the good witch of the South, the sister of Glinda, the good witch of the North," replied Mr. Wogglebug merrily.

"But why?" asked the Wizard.

"You'll see soon enough," replied the Wogglebug with a wink. "Here we are!"

They stopped in front of a large cave with a purplish color to it. The Wizard was momentarily perplexed by this.

"Do you mean the good witch of the South lives in a cave?" he asked, rather surprised.

"Yes, in fact she does," the Wogglebug replied earnestly. "She is a very meticulous witch, indeed!"

The Wogglebug stood in front of the cave's entrance and made peculiar gestures with his hands. Then right before their eyes the good witch Locasta appeared in front of them with a showering of purple sparkling rain accompanying her momentarily. She was as tall as her sister Glinda and wore a long purple gown covered with silver stars. She had long silver hair flowing down her shoulders and back, though her face looked quite young, and she also wore a tall silver crown.

"Mr. H. M. Wogglebug T.E. I presume?" she said, addressing the insect.

"Absolutely correct!" he said, taking off his hat and bowing as low and elegant as a royal courtier. "Might I say it is a pleasure to see you again, Locasta!"

She smiled at him and nodded and then continued, "And you must be the Wizard of Oz, himself."

He lowered his head slightly and said somewhat embarrassed, "I am afraid I am not really a wizard, I am just a stage magician from the outside world of Omaha, and I came to Oz in a balloon and pretended to be a wizard to keep the two wicked witches away from me, and so the people of Oz would continue to let me rule the Emerald City, and I am sorry."

Locasta continued smiling and said, "I was always aware you were a bad wizard but a very good man, and now I shall let you have the honor of being a very, very good wizard."

He was now double surprised. "But how?"

"With this," she drew a long silver wand from between her fingers seemingly out of nothing. "This wand was made from silver birch, dragon's fire, and a unicorn horn, and it will help you to achieve magic and greatness."

As she handed the wand to him he felt a strange tingling feeling in his fingers. He was also shocked any respectable person of magic would give him such a splendid gift.

"You are very kind," he said hesitantly, "and I do appreciate your gift, but really I can't do magic. I was ever only a stage magician who performed conjuring tricks to entertain. Really, I'm no wizard."

"My friend," said Mr. Wogglebug. "Some wizards are born with magic and others have the magic thrust upon them, and for you the time has come."

"Mr. Wogglebug is quite right," said Locasta. "You mustn't hold yourself to your past, you must plan for your future. Remember, trust in yourself, trust in your magic."

Then in another brilliant flash of light Locasta vanished from sight.

The Wizard was left staring at the magical instrument in his hand and not knowing what to do with it. He was in despair. "This is a fine burden I've had placed upon me!" he said. "I'm no wizard, I'm just... a con man of the supernatural!"

"Come on now! You should be delighted to have this great honor placed upon you!" said Mr. Wogglebug. "After all, you did wish you could be a wizard when you were a boy, did you not? Wasn't that why you began to study first hand magic?"

"Well, yes, I suppose you're right," the Wizard admitted thoughtfully. "I ran away to a circus and I learned from the best of – Now wait just a minute, how did you know that?" he exclaimed suddenly bursting with curiosity.

Mr. Wogglebug sighed with resignation. "Ah... Well, I might as well tell you the truth, my friend. Now, think of all the rain drops, they all come from the same source and yet they are all made up of completely different molecules of water with different atomic particles in each one; and now imagine that there are as many dimensions as there are rain drops and likewise no two of them are exactly alike, and these alternate realities are all parallel to each other and can sometimes touch onto another and become out of place; and now imagine that someone with the right intelligence, like me for instance, can voyage from one dimension to another and fix its problem."

The Wizard was wracking his brain as the Wogglebug was speaking. "Now... let me see if I have this straight...There are a million other dimensions apart from this one, and you're from one of them and you've come to this one just to help me to become a real wizard?"

"You've got it!" exclaimed the Wogglebug. "There's actually a billion other dimensions of Oz and I've only been to a handful of them and I've found too many in which I don't even exist, and there are also a few in which I really am not someone you would care to associate with and even if you did I couldn't help you. But I assure you this version of me can help you. You see, it just so happens in the Oz I am from you are indeed a really wonderful wizard and it's only logical that you can be one in this one too, if you believe you can be."

"Well, I must be out of my mind but I believe everything you've said," said the Wizard. "After all, there aren't many six foot bugs that walk and talk like you in the world. Alright then, Mr. Wogglebug, I'm willing and eager for you to tutor me in the use of my magic wand."

"Ah, now that's the spirit!" exclaimed Mr. Wogglebug jubilantly. "Now let us start with something simple."

He looked around at their surroundings for something to practice on and he spotted a bed of red, yellow, and blue flowers. "Here we are," he said. "Let's see these flowers fly away."

"Fly? Flowers don't fly," said the Wizard in puzzlement.

"True, but as a wizard you have the ability to meddle with nature, to convince something it is what it isn't, you can even manipulate time," Mr. Wogglebug explained to him.

"Oh... right. So what do I do? Do I just flick my wand at them?" inquired the Wizard.

"There is a little more to it," the Wogglebug said. "First you must hush your mind to complete silence, clearing it of all unpleasant thoughts that would disrupt it. You must have a picture of your intention clearly in your mind's eye. You must hold fast to your intention as tight as you can and you must believe in it and believe that magic is your friend so you can work it at your will."

The Wizard attempted to follow the Wogglebug's instructions. He made sure there was only peace in his mind, he tried to picture the flowers he saw standing still flying in the air, and he even tried to convince himself he could do magic.

He closed his eyes for a moment and flicked his wand in the direction of the flowers. When he opened his eyes he was astonished to see the flowers lifting gracefully up from their roots in the ground and whirling up into the air like propellers.

"Aha! See, I knew you could do it!" Mr. Wogglebug exclaimed, clapping his hands happily. "All it takes is your wand together with a bit of faith and trust. Why don't we try something else?"

He looked around again and spotted a tall tree with thick branches growing nearby. "See this tree? It is devoid of any delectable organisms – that is it has no fruit growing in it. But if you will just wish for it to grow fruit it will."

This idea sounded reasonable to the Wizard after his experience, so he closed his eyes and tried to picture the tree has bearing fruit in it and flicked his wand at it. When he opened his eyes he saw the tree now had fruit that looked like very large apples growing all over it.

"Aha! You see, you're fantastic at magic!" Mr. Wogglebug exclaimed happily. "Now why don't we taste the fruits of your labor, hmm?" he suggested hungrily.

The Wizard thought this was a good idea and so he stepped up to the tree, reached up to the lowest branch he could and plucked a juicy looking applelike fruit from it. Then he was surprised as it seemed to begin to wiggle in his hands and then six wirelike limbs extended from it. He turned it over and saw two black beady eyes staring at him menacingly. The ugly little creature made a particularly sour face at him and then began to claw at him.

"Oh I say! What is this thing!" he exclaimed in dismay as frantically brushed the creature off of him.

"It looks like an itchy bug that sometimes hides in plants to fool it's victims," Mr. Wogglebug observed as he watched the specimen crawl away on the ground.

"Oh dear me. These bugs certainly a pest!" The Wizard moaned as he scratched at the areas where the itchy bug had attacked him. "I do detest bugs! Although present company is certainly excepted!" he added hastily to spare the Wogglebug's feelings.

Mr. Wogglebug smiled and nodded understandingly. "Sometimes magic doesn't always turn out quite the way we expect it to," he said. "Although this fruit is alright," he added as he plucked a real apple off of the very same tree and bit into it.

"So perhaps I just need a little more practice," said the Wizard humbly.

"Of course," said Mr. Wogglebug. "After all the only way to learn something is to practice. Let's try something a little bit more practical now.

He looked around and a big idea came to him when he spotted a small green frog sitting on a lilypad in a pond. "How about you try turn this frog into a person?" he suggested eagerly.

"A real challenge that sounds like!" said the Wizard. "I like it!"

They went over to the frog who was looking at them innocently and the Wizard tried with all his might to see a person in the frog's place. He closed his eyes and tried to hold the picture of the person in front of the frog in his mind as he flicked his wand out at it.

When he opened his eyes he watched to his most astounding surprise as the little frog grew bigger and bigger until it was fully the size of a human being, but it stayed a frog, and at the instant it reached its full height it donned a fine suit of clothing made of yellow satin and white silk topped off with a purple top hat on it's green head.

The Wizard and Wogglebug stared in unblinking amazement at the manlike frog and then suddenly it spoke to them in a croaking voice with a cultured accent.

"Hello and how do you do on this beautiful day?" it said. "I beg your pardonings but have you seen any flies around here?"

"Uh... n-n-no," the Wogglebug recovered from his surprise just enough to answer.

A look of disappointment momentarily appeared in the frog's big blue eyes. "Oh well then, goodbye to you both," it said, and tipping its hat it hopped away on it's hind legs.

The Wizard and Wogglebug stared after the frog briefly and then the Wizard blinked and said, "Well, I didn't quite turn him into the kind of person I had imagined."

"He seems about as much a person as I am, and that is close enough," said Mr. Wogglebug approvingly.

"I guess I don't have all the tricks to this magical trade worked out yet," said the Wizard a bit despondently.

"Well, of course not, but you will in good time," Mr. Wogglebug assured him. "The greatest practioners of magic had started out as beginners like you so just be patient with yourself. After all, not every wizard can be another Harry Potter."

"Who's Harry Potter," inquired the Wizard curiously.

"He is only the most powerful wizard in the United Kingdom," Mr. Wogglebug explained. "I've read all about him, and he made many mistakes on his way up. Perhaps we should stop your practicing for now, perhaps you'll be more successful when it really matters, and let's continue on our way to look for your friends."

The Wicked Witch of the West was spying on the Wizard and Wogglebug as she was looking into her crystal ball.

"So this pompous know-it-all wogglebug thinks he can teach the Wizard to use real magic does he? Is he thinking he can defeat me?! Well, not if I can help it! Truckle, bring me my bag of red powder!"

Truckle was currently busy in devouring his deliciously ripe grapefruit and didn't seem to hear her.

"Truckle!" she screeched.

Truckle suddenly gagged as he choked on the grapefruit that had become stuck in his throat. He kept choking hard but the Witch didn't seem to care that he was as she continued to screech.

"You stupid worthless miserable monkey brain! You never pay attention to me! Why was I cursed with such fools for slaves!? Why?!"

Truckle kept choking as the Witch stormed off to brood. Then just when it seemed he was going to choke to death he felt someone wrap their arms around his middle and squeeze him hard enough for the half eaten bit of grapefruit to up from his throat.

He gasped as he tried to catch his breath and then he turned around to thank his rescuer. "Th-thanks, T-Tricia."

Tricia was the Witch's one and only female winged monkey servant. She was trim and slender with long blonde braids and wore a matching skirt beneath her red and blue uniform jacket.

"Anytime, Truckle, anytime," she replied.

* * *

The Wizard and Wogglebug went on their way through the Gilikin countryside while the Wogglebug gave the Wizard tidbits on using magic as well as various useful spells he could do at the right time.

They passed many farms along their way. They came to one at which they saw an older man sitting down on the ground beside a patch of what looked like weeds, and he looked so sad and broken that the two travelers at once felt so much sympathy they approached him straightaway.

"Good morning, sir. What seems to be troubling you so?" asked Mr. Wogglebug kindly.

The man looked up remorsefully and moaned. "There has been a terrible drought this season and my tomatoes won't grow. You see?"

They looked at the patch of weeds beside him and they found a few tiny reddish balls hanging from them miserably.

"Oh dear, I am terribly sorry for you, sir," said the Wizard. "I wish there was something I could do."

"Perhaps you can do something!" exclaimed Mr. Wogglebug brightly. "You are a wizard, after all, and you can be good at anything if you just want to be, including farming. You can help the tomatoes to grow to their biggest and fullest!"

"Would you really do that for me?" the old farmer stood up looking eager.

"Well, I... I... alright. I'll do my best," the Wizard sighed. He faced the tomato vines and held his wand out in front of him and waved it to and fro as he closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on picturing the feeble tomatoes as being the biggest and fullest of all.

"Tomatoes... grow!" he cried out as he flicked his wand and a spark flew from its tip at them. The tomatoes began to glow with a mystical silvery light and then gradually they began to grow bigger and fuller and redder.

"Ah! That's good!" the farmer sighed in satisfaction as the tomatoes reached the size of large baseballs.

"Ah! That's nice!" he said as they reached the size of basketballs.

"Ah! That's wonderful!" he said as they reached the size of watermelons.

"Ah! That's enough!" he exclaimed as they reached the size of large beach balls.

"Ah! That's a little too much!" he exclaimed as they reached the size of barges.

Ah! That is way too much!" he exclaimed as they were fast reaching the size of houses. "Make them stop! Make them stop!" he cried desperately and waving his arms.

"I... I don't think I can!" cried the Wizard frantically waving his wand everywhere, which seemed to be making it much worse.

"Look out! They're gonna blow!" exclaimed Mr. Wogglebug in horror.

And they did. They swelled up to the size of small hills and then began spliting open, and then they suddenly burst inside out, sending tomato juice sprawling everywhere. The farmer, wizard, and wogglebug were covered in the red sticky substance as also was the farmhouse in front of them and about two miles of land before them.

"Oh dear! I'm so sorry, my good farmer man. I'm just not a very good wizard right now, am I?"

"Think nothing of it," Mr. Wogglebug said coaxingly. "Sometimes these tricks don't always work the way we expect them to like I said before. Now, if you please, could you use that cleaning spell I told you about?"

And the Wizard did so and all the juice stains vanished leaving everything spotless as if the incident had never occurred. Then the Wogglebug and Wizard said goodbye to the poor farmer and went on their way.

"Hahahahhahhaahaaa! You haven't seen nothing yet my foolish Wizard amateur!" the Witch laughed as she spied on them in her crystal ball.


	3. Chapter 3

Dorothy and her three companions reached the edge of the Yellow Brick Road and found themselves in a whole new countryside where everything seemed to be colorful and soft. The ground was covered in patches in all the colors of the rainbow, and patches were growing out trees nearby, and even the houses and fences seemed to be made of soft fabric and stuffed with cotton.

"Oh my!" said Dorothy. "Everything here is so beautifully colorful, and I feel just like I'm walking on the quilt on my bed in Kansas!"

"The ground is all stuffed with fluffing!" the Lion observed as he dug his claws into it.

"So are the houses," the Scarecrow observed. "I wonder who lives in them?"

"And if they've seen the Wizard," added the Tin Man.

"Maybe we can ask that cute little elephant who's coming up here," Dorothy said, pointing straight ahead, and indeed there was a very short blue elephant with big pink ears and stitches all over him as if he had been manufactured as a toy and his hide was covered in big multicolored patches.

"Excuse us, Mr. Elephant!" Dorothy called out to him when he was close enough to hear.

"Greetings," he said. "But my name isn't Elephant, it's Hodge Podge."

"Well, I must say you are a very hodge podge elephant!" Dorothy giggled, eying his patchwork back.

"Oh am I an elephant?" Hodge Podge exclaimed. "I had completely forgotten!"

"You forgot what you are?" Dorothy said in surprise. "I thought elephants could never forget anything at all."

"Well, I happen to have a very poor memory," Hodge Podge replied rather sadly.

"Do you, however, remember which direction you saw a big balloon drift away?" asked the Tin Man very hopefully.

"Hmm... I can't say that I do," replied Hodge Podge earnestly. "But you can ask Miss Scraps, she might know. She lives right down there," he pointed with his trunk toward a round dome shaped cottage covered with about a million patches.

"Thanks! Let's go!" they said and went on their separate ways.

The four comrades walked up to the patchwork cottage and found a lawn in front of it surrounded by a fence made of red yarn and in the lawn were a few trees with patches growing from them and right in the center of them was a peculiar looking young woman wearing a long and heavy dress made of a patchwork quilt and she seemed to be made of the quilt also, that is she had patches everywhere on her. She also had shoe-button eyes, teeth of pearls, and long curly hair made of reddish brown yarn. She was dancing and singing gaily to herself in yard while she picked patches off of her trees.

They all stopped by the fence and watched her dancing and listened to her singing.

"_Patches, patches, patches!  
Pick some pretty patches!  
Put the pretty patches in the patchwork quilt!  
Patches, patches, patches!  
When your made of patches  
Life is gay and giddy all day!  
I'll go dancing along,  
My happy little patchwork way!" _

They were all very intrigued by her delightful mannerisms, and the Scarecrow seemed to be especially interested.

When she finally spotted them looking at her she smiled and skipped over to them.

"Excuse me, but are you Miss Scraps?" Dorothy inquired.

"_La da dee!  
That's me!  
How do you do  
and who are you?"_

"I'm Dorothy Gale, from Kansas," she said, "and this is my dog Toto, and my friends, the Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow."

"We're very pleased to make your acquaintance," the Scarecrow said with a very warm smile as he extended his hand out to her.

She took his hand and shook it exuberantly. It may have been she shook it to much or his hand was just too loose, because it quickly tore free from his hand came from his arm and the patchwork girl gasped, more in surprise than in horror, as she held it in her own patchwork hand.

The Scarecrow gave a chuckle of embarrassment. "Oh dear, I do apologize, " he said. "I seem to just not be able to hold myself together in the presence of a beautiful lady."

The red patches on the patchwork girl's cheeks seemed to grow even redder now and she began dancing and skipping along the path that led to her cottage.

"_So sorry to see  
A mess of you and me!  
Come in and be my guest  
I suggest,  
And I'll sew you  
As good as new!"_

So they all went into the patchwork girl's house and found all of the furniture in it was also covered in patchwork and stuffed with cotton, and it seemed so were even the walls, floor, and ceiling. They all sat down in patchwork chairs and looked at the patchwork art that decorated the walls while the Scarecrow sat patiently beside Scraps as she took out a needle and thread and began to sew his hand back onto his arm, whistling and singing as she did so.

"_Oh me, oh my!  
You are a sight that really catches my eye!  
You're the first man made of straw  
I ever saw!  
Now I am holding your hand,  
And it feels just grand  
To be able to see  
That you are just as wise  
As wise can be  
And you take me by surprise  
As I realize_

_You are now blushing at me!"_

The Scarecrow was indeed blushing as he listened to her verses. He sighed and said, "Thank you, but I don't think I am worthy of such praise from you, for you see I really don't have a brain, at least not anymore I don't."

The patchwork chuckled as she said, "That is quite alright, for you see though I have brains I have no heart, but I do not need one, for I am always happy anyway. And I do believe you are wise even without brains."

The Tin Man was listening and watching them curiously and thought he recognized the looks in their faces, and they were the same looks he and his beloved Miranda the Milkmaid of Mechanica had when they first met each other. If neither the Scarecrow or Miss Scraps had hearts how could they still feel such things for each other? But then, on the other hand, how could he himself still feel emotion for Miranda when his own heart he knew was stolen and in possession of the Wicked Witch of the West?

"We were wondering," said Dorothy, "If perhaps you saw a big purple hot-air balloon drift by here? It's the Wizard's balloon, you see, and we must find him."

"Yes, I have seen him," said Scraps. "He was drifting North wards at first, and then he took a turn toward North West and I do believe he is somewhere in the Gilikin territory."

When Scraps had finally finished sewing the Scarecrow's hand back into its proper place she looked at him with just a trace of sadness as she sang,

"_Look at you  
You're good as new  
I know you must go  
I wish it wasn't so, though  
I would like you to stay  
And play with me all day!"_

The Scarecrow tenderly frowned and said, "I must go with my friends and put justice to the Wizard of Oz with them... but if it wasn't so I think I would love to stay here with you."

They all thanked the patchwork girl and left her cottage, as they left the Scarecrow lingered at the door for a moment for he knew he felt something for Scarps which he had never felt for anyone of anything before and he really wished he could figure out exactly what it was, but then how could he without so much as a brain in his head. He knew that she used verses to express herself often so he tried to do the same.

"_Gosh it would be awful pleas'n  
To reason out the reason  
For things I can't explain  
Then perhaps I'll deserve ya  
And be even worthy er'v ya  
If I only had a brain!"_

He took her hand and kissed it before he left and waved goodbye to her as he rejoined the others.


	4. Chapter 4

The Wicked Witch of the West had been spying on Dorothy and her friends through her crystal ball and saw they were leaving Patchwork Land and heading toward the Gillikin Country and were now not far from where the Wizard and Mr. Wogglebug were heading. She was determined to stop them from meeting each other and she had a most wickedly devious idea of just how to do so. She rubbed her gnarled green hands together as she cackled with glee at the thought of it.

"Truckle!" she screamed for him. "Bring me my black powder!"

Truckle had been trying to eat the banana he was holding and now he groaned and put it aside as he went to retrieve the Witch's black powder. On his way he came across Tricia as she was carrying two buckets of water in either hand, and suddenly he had a very bright idea.

"Hey Tricia!" he called out to her.

"Yes, Truckle," she asked.

"How would you like to help me play a little joke on Her Meanness?" he asked with a very mischievous grin on his face.

"I'd love to!" exclaimed Tricia as she put down the buckets of water.

Truckle whispered to her his idea for the prank. The Witch meanwhile looked into her crystal ball and focused her fingertip at the middle of the road where the four friends were heading and zapped it so that it split into four roads instead of just one. She then conjured a sign post with four arms pointing in the four different directions and all of then read the same destination.

The witch pulled her head back and cackled loudly as Dorothy and her three companions came up to the sign post and looked at it in confusion.

"Oh dear! Now which way do we go?" Dorothy asked in despair.

"Maybe we should go this way?" suggested the Lion, pointing in one direction.

"No, I think we'd be better off going this way," said the Scarecrow, pointing in another direction.

"No, you're both wrong, we should go this way," countered the Tin Man.

Dorothy thought in furious agitation for a moment and then said, "Look, why don't we all just go in one different direction each and then meet each other back her to confirm what each one leads to in ten minutes?"

"Why, what a brilliant idea, Dorothy!" said the Scarecrow approvingly. "Anyone with a brain could have thought of that."

And so Dorothy went in the Northern direction, and the Scarecrow went in the Southern direction, and the Tin Man went in the Easterly direction, and the Lion went in the West one.

The Witch stood watching at her crystal ball and grinned maliciously at their foolishness. _The fun has only just began, my pretties!_ She thought wickedly.

The Scarecrow was walking along steadily in a seemingly peaceful area, when suddenly he heard a loud raucous of cawing and screeching. He looked around and he saw big black crows flying at him everywhere.

"What!? Crows!?" he exclaimed as he wondered where they could have come from.

Then before he knew it all the crows were encircling him and picking at his straw and flapping around him so much they were nearly knocking him down.

"What? Shoo shoo! Get away! Get away from me! Help Help!" he hollered in great horror as he could feel himself being pecked to bits by the crows sharp beaks and claws.

The Tin Man meanwhile was also walking along in seemingly harmless part of the country when he suddenly heard a great roar of rushing water coming towards him. He looked up and saw unto his horror a flashing flood surging right at him.

"What!? Oh no! Help! Help!" he screamed as he felt himself being helplessly engulfed by the water and washed away in its current and he likewise felt himself being rusted solid and laid helplessly unable to move or speak as the deluge carried him further and further away.

The Lion was now also strolling along in a seemingly harmless place, when suddenly from out of nowhere came an all too familiar and most unwelcome sound to his ears, the laughing of a hyena! He looked quickly in the direction it came from and he saw his old enemy lurking behind a tree and laughing at him.

"Hey! What are you doing here? I thought I told you to go away and never come back! How dare you disobey me, the King of the Forest!" he roared at the hyena, but the hyena stayed where he was and didn't even stop laughing at him.

The Lion charged at the hyena while waving his paws in the air with his claws and teeth bared, however just as he was about to strike the hyena vanished from behind the tree, and as the Lion looked around in confusion he suddenly heard the hyena's laughter coming from right behind him. He whirled around confronted the hyena as he was laughing his head off and swung at him but as he did the hyena vanished from his sight yet again and now he heard the annoying laughter coming from somewhere else. He looked and to his surprise and horror he saw not one but two hyenas on either side of the tree, both laughing and pointing at him. Then he heard more annoying laughter and he saw two more hyenas behind him now, and then another, and another. He thought he was gonna go mad as their laughter surrounded him completely.

Dorothy meanwhile was walking along at a steady pace in a peaceful place when she suddenly heard a loud buzzing noise coming from somewhere and Toto promptly started barking.

"What is it, Toto?" asked Dorothy as the buzzing became louder and louder.

"What!? Oh no! Bees!" she screamed as she saw a swarm of the biggest, blackest, and loudest bees she'd ever seen swarming towards her and before she knew it they were all flying around her and stinging at her exposed skin.

"Help! Help! Ouch! Ouch!" she bellowed as she swatted at the horrible pests and couldn't see Toto anywhere at all because the bees were so big and they're were so many of them.

"Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" The Witch cackled uproarishly as she watched the plight of her helpless victims. "Those imbeciles! Just look at them! They actually believe what they see is real! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Then she saw how close the Wizard and Wogglebug were getting to Dorothy. "Truckle!" she yelled. "My black powder!"

"Here, your most evilness!" he exclaimed as he flew up to her with a bag full of black powder.

"Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" the Witch cackled with triumph as she poured the whole bag of black powder over the crystal ball with the intention of having it form a sold black iron wall which seal away the four miserable comrades and prevent the Wizard and Wogglebug from reaching them. However, this didn't happen. Instead the crystal ball itself turned completely black and hard as a rock and sizzled.

The witch was horrified. "WHAT IS THIS!?" she bellowed.

She heard laughter behind her and found Truckle and Tricia laughing gaily on the floor at her falling for their prank.

"N-Now... Now you'll never... use your crystal ball again!" Tricia shouted through her laughter.

The Witch's green face turned very dark and red now and she reached out as she advanced on the two backstabbers.

"You miserable wretches! I'll teach you to meddle with my plans!" she screeched as she began chasing them all around the castle.

Truckle and Tricia ran as fast as their feet could carry them and they were almost out of breath as the witch was catching up when suddenly Truckle remembered the banana and he took it out and popped it into his mouth and then threw the peeling of it onto the floor so that the Witch stepped on it and slipped and fell on her backside on the hard stone floor which gave the two winged monkeys just enough time to fly out the window.

Meanwhile, the Wizard and Mr. Wogglebug were walking along and they spotted Dorothy standing in the middle of the road and she shaking all over and waving her arms everywhere and Toto was running all around at her feet and whimpering loudly.

"Why, by jove! It's Dorothy! But what is wrong with her?" exclaimed the Wizard.

"She seems to be in some kind of invisible distress," observed Mr. Wogglebug. "Try the seeing spell I told you about earlier."

"Reveal!" The Wizard aimed his wand at Dorothy and he saw what was troubling her so. "Egads! Look at all those bees!"

"I don't see any bees," said Mr. Wogglebug. "It must be some sort of illusion brought on by some sort of evil, I have seen this kind of thing in my day. Perhaps if you were to use a reverse spell she would be able to see she is no danger at all."

"I'll try," said the Wizard. He pointed his wand at Dorothy again. "El-tero-reverso!" he exclaimed as a pale silver light flew out of his wand and outlined Dorothy and she quickly stopped waving and swaying and Toto also stopped running and whimpering.

Dorothy looked down at herself and found she had no bee stings on her anywhere at all, and she was most confused about this and also at how suddenly all the bees had just vanished like they just did. Then she noticed the Wizard and Mr. Wogglebug standing beside her.

"Wizard! How glad I am to see you!" she exclaimed with joy and relief. "Who are you?" she asked looking peculiarly at Mr. Wogglebug.

"I shall explain myself soon," said Mr. Wogglebug with a bow. "Right now we must find your friends for I have a feeling they are in trouble themselves."

They went South and soon they found the Scarecrow as he was standing in the middle of the road and waving his arms everywhere and swaying from side to side and yelling for help in a way similar to how Dorothy had.

"Reveal!" The Wizard used the revealing spell and saw the flock of crows that were all trying to peck the Scarecrow apart all at once. "El-tero-reverso!" the Wizard cast the reverse spell once again and the crows vanished without a trace leaving the Scarecrow much dazed and confused as he rubbed at himself and found all of his straw was still in its place.

"Wizard?" he said when he saw him. "What are you doing here?"

"No time to explain," said the Wizard. "For we must find the others."

The Scarecrow followed after Dorothy, the Wizard, and the Wogglebug as they went West and they soon found the Lion as he was standing in the middle of the road growling and punching at the air around him everywhere at hitting at seemingly nothing at all.

"El-tero-reverso!" The Wizard aimed his wand at the Lion casting the Reverse Spell and the Lion whirled around for a moment and then stood still and looked rather dizzy as he put his paws up to his head and shook it. Then he noticed everyone in front of him.

"Hey, where did that mangy hyena go to now? Did any of you see him?" he inquired.

They all shook their heads. "The laughing hyena is not here, Lion, " said Dorothy. "Now com on, we must find the Tin Man.

The Lion joined them and they went East and came upon the Tin Man as he was lying helplessly still and stiff in the middle of the road as though he were rusted. The Wizard performed the revealing spell to see what was the matter with him first and then he did the reversing spell, but still the Tin Man did not move at all.

"I know what he needs," Dorothy said wisely. She took the Tin Man's oil can out of her basket and stepped up to him and began oiling him and soon he was back on his feet again.

"Thank you, Dorothy! You've saved me!" the Tin Man exclaimed gratefully. "Scarecrow, Lion, Wizard, how did you all get here, and how did you escape the flood?" he asked, most confused.

"There was no flood at all," said Mr. Wogglebug. "It was only an illusion, and was probably brought on by the Wicked Witch of the West." He nodded towards the others as he continued, "And the bees, crows, and hyenas, they were all illusions too. The reason you were so easily fooled is because the mind is a fragile organism that only picks up what he sees and already knows from experience."

"This is Mr. H. M. Wogglebug T. E.," the Wizard introduced him. "He saved my life and now he is tutoring me in the use of real magic. He is also from another Oz."

"Another Oz?" asked the Scarecrow. "You mean like another dimension of some kind, like the Upside-Down Town we went to once?"

"Yes, you are correct," said Mr. Wogglebug, nodding approvingly at the Scarecrow.

"But why did you come here?" asked Dorothy.

"Why, to help you rid Oz of the Wicked Witch for once and for always!" he declared. "And I am also here to be your friend because I don't even have a counterpart in this dimension," he added. "So, will you let me join you?" He held out his hand hopefully.

Dorothy and her friends all smiled warmly and nodded as they reached out their own hands, Dorothy's soft delicate human hand, the Tin Man's hard metal hand, the Scarecrow's straw stuffed gloved hand, and the Lion's paw, all connected with the Wogglebug's rather spider like brown hand.

"For Oz?" Mr. Wogglebug asked as they all put their hands together.

"For Oz!" they all exclaimed in unison as they released their hands into the air at the same time.


	5. Chapter 5

Dorothy decided they should take the time as they went through the woods to get to know Mr. H. M. Wogglebug T. E. and the others agreed. They were surprised to find he knew more about them than they knew about him, and they were especially interested in the other dimension of Oz he claimed he was from.

"Am I really a princess of Oz in the one you come from?" asked Dorothy, much surprised.

"Yes, indeed," said Mr. Wogglebug, "and you are the perfect princess in my book."

"And I am really the ruler of the Winkies?" asked the Tin Man in disbelief.

"Yes, you are," Mr. Wogglebug confirmed. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Winkies will want you to rule over them here too after the Wicked Witch is defeated."

"And, I also live in a mansion where you come from?" asked the Scarecrow. "And I have the finest brains in all of Oz?"

"Yes, absolutely," said Mr. Wogglebug. "You have the finest brains other than my own there, and you do here too," he continued pointedly.

"You mean I will have them once I get my diploma back from the Witch?" the Scarecrow inquired.

"No, I mean you have them right now," Mr. Wogglebug said firmly. "I don't understand why you adhere to all of this 'I don't have a brain' nonsense! I mean, just because you've had your diploma stolen from you doesn't mean you are suddenly a totally brainless person."

"Well, that is easy for you to say," said the Scarecrow with indignation and a touch of hurt. "I bet you've never had your diploma stolen, have you?"

"No, because I don't have one," replied Mr. Wogglebug simply.

"You don't?" the Scarecrow exclaimed in surprise and confusion. "What? But why? I don't understand, I mean you're so thoroughly educated, so oughtn't you to have gotten one?"

"Perhaps in other circumstances I would have," said Mr. Wogglebug thoughtfully. "It just so happened that I had been a very tiny bug living in a schoolhouse and the professor there didn't even know he was educating me along with the rest of his students. But just because I don't actually have a diploma doesn't mean I'm not still thoroughly educated and deserving of one."

"He is quite right, Scarecrow," said Dorothy. "He is saying to you what I have been trying to tell you for a long time. Don't you remember all of the times you've helped us out of trouble by finding the right solution to the situation? Would someone without a brain be capable of such smart reaction?"

The Scarecrow was just about to say they may be right, when suddenly they came to a fork on the road at which was standing a giant stone head. This head was six feet tall and rather oval shaped and had two large slits for eyes and a nose half as big as it was and a long thin mouth that was just as big.

"Why what a queer looking sculpture!" observed Dorothy.

"It reminds me of the stone heads I saw on Easter Island," said Mr. Wogglebug in fascination.

"But what's it doing here for?" asked the Lion rather gruffly.

"You dum-dums!" the head suddenly spoke to them in a booming voice that seemed to match its height and weight. They were so startled by it they all stepped back and the Lion hid slightly behind the Wizard.

"I am the guardian of this part of the land!" the head continued. "And I no let anyone pass by me who isn't as smart as they look, if not smarter!"

"Well, we're all smart people, you can be sure of that!" declared Mr. Wogglebug.

"Hmm... Me no know," the head muttered as it appeared to be examining them though its eyes remained focused. "Me will ask you five questions and you will have to answer them correctly, and if you do not you must turn around and go back the way you came. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" they all said in unison for none of them knew how to argue with a big head.

"Alright," said the head. "Me first question... How far into the woods can you walk?"

Everyone looked at each other in puzzlement, completely unsure of how to answer. Then the Scarecrow suddenly spoke up. "Why halfway, of course! For we'd be walking into the woods for half the time and the other half we'd be walking out of the woods!"

The head's long mouth curved upward slightly for a moment as though it were impressed. "Very good, strawman," it said. "Me next question... "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?'

This question seemed even more puzzling than the last one, and it took about a minute before the Scarecrow finally spoke up. "Why a man! He crawls on all fours at the beginning of life, and walks on his two feet during the middle, and supports himself on a cane during the later part."

"Very good," said the head. "Me next question... What has no weight, can be seen with the naked eye, and makes things lighter?"

Everyone seemed to be quite stumped at this one and they all thought for a few minutes when the Scarecrow suddenly spoke up again. "It's a hole, of course!"

"You good at this," said the head. "Now me next question... Why do birds fly South?"

"Because it's too far to walk, of course!" said the Scarecrow after a moment's thought.

"Hmmm... yes, correct," said the head. "Now me last question... and hardly anyone ever answers this one... What is more powerful than the Wicked Witch of the West, the Good Witch of the North, and the Wizard of Oz put together?"

While everyone else looked ready to give up and turn back, the Scarecrow immediately cried out, "Why nothing! Nothing at all! Of course!"

The head's mouth opened slightly as if in amazement. "You are indeed smarter than most people I have met yet... and you may pass by me."

So they did, and Mr. Wogglebug said to the Scarecrow, "You did well, my friend! You see, I told you had brains. No one without a brain could have figured out all of those riddles. Why, you said all of the things I was trying to think of and couldn't. I am very proud of you!"

They went along humming to "Skip to my lieu" as they went. Soon they came to a grove of trees which was bent down in the shape of a small house or cottage. The leaves at the top made up the roof while the branches all shaped the outside in a strange twisted pattern, and two branches at the bottom were crudely curved into a door with a small stub from a branch that had been cut off serving as the door handle.

"What a queer little cottage!" exclaimed Dorothy. "I wonder who lives in it?"

"There is only one way to find out!" said Mr. Wogglebug as he stepped forward and tapped on the door.

"Come in," said a sweet yet melancholy voice from inside. "Come in."

They entered and found a room with scarcely anything in it except for the figure of a woman who had long green hair and pale green skin and wings on her back that looked like they were made of gossamer. She wore a shoulder length white dress and slippers which also looked like they were made of gossamer.

"Greetings my good travelers," she said in a voice that was neither warm nor cold. "What brings you here?"

"We were just passing by," said Dorothy uneasily. "Who are you?"

"I am but only a lonely tree spirit who has been deserted by her own kind and so I live out my days here in this makeshift abode I constructed myself."

"Oh you poor creature," said the Tin Man sympathetically. "I wish there were something we could do for you."

"You seem a very compassionate person," the tree spirit said observantly. "You must have a very good heart in you."

"Well, I don't know about having a heart," the Tin Man said slowly. "For first the tinsmith who made me forgot to give me one, I could tell for my chest had a hollow echo, and then the heart the Wizard of Oz gave me was stolen away by the Wicked Witch of the West. So I am afraid I am without heart."

"If you are indeed without heart then I can fix that for you for I know a bit of magical arts and I can give you a heart," she said, smiling coyly.

"Could you really?" asked the Tin Man brightly.

"Indeed," she replied smugly. "I could give you my own heart. For you see I've tried and tried to give it to the right man of my kind yet they always ended up returning it, each time more broken than the last. But you seem like the right person to have it if I do say so myself."

"But... um... don't you need your heart?" asked the Tin Man uneasily.

"No, not at all," she replied with certainty. "For it is of no use to me now as it is so wasted and broken I can feel nothing at all, but if given to the right man, which could easily be you, it would be mended and whole again."

"Would it be a heart full of kindness?" inquired the Tin Man.

"Yes, it would be a very good, kind, and most loving heart," she assured him. "And it is yours for the taking if you will only accept it as your own."

"Then I think I may take it," said the Tin Man stepping forward.

"There is a small catch however," the tree spirit added, which stopped the Tin Man in his tracks. "You must abandon your companions and stay here with me."

"I must?" repeated the Tin Man quite stunned. "But I can't! I could never! They are my good and loyal friends who have helped me out of trouble and they deserve no less from me."

"The choice is yours," said the tree spirit softly as she seemed to understand what his decision was.

"I'm sorry, but just can't take your heart," he said. "For heartless or not I have friends to take care of."

"Then leave me now! Leave at once, all of you!" the tree spirit demanded rather testily.

And so they did leave at once, and as they walked away from the tree cottage and started on their path once more the Wogglebug praised the Tin Man as so:

"I am very proud of you, my metallic friend! For you just made the most unselfish decision of all. And I think even if the tinsmith who made you did forget to give you heart you have still developed one on your own, for even if you don't have emotions in the beginning you still learn about emotions on your own as you live."

The Tin Man was about to reply when suddenly they discovered an animal with silvery white hair shining in the sun.

"Oh my! What a beautiful white horse!" exclaimed Dorothy. "She looks so sad though."

Mr. Wogglebug was staring curiously at the white horse and he lifted a hand to his eyes almost as if he were adjusting invisible spectacles. He studied her hard for a moment and then exclaimed, "Why this is no ordinary horse! It's a unicorn! But it seems to have lost its horn!"

"I haven't lost it," said the unicorn in a very melancholy voice. "It was stolen from me by a wicked ogre a few minutes ago. Without my precious horn I have no magic and I am so ashamed to be seen without it."

"Oh no! How terrible! You poor thing! I am so sorry!" exclaimed the Tin Man beginning to cry.

"Where is he?" demanded the Lion as he balled up his paws and flung them from side to side. "I'll pulverize him! I'll parallelize him! I'll make him wish he never took your horn! You just lead me to him!"

So the unicorn without a horn led them through the woods until they could feel the ground beneath them rumbling and they caught sight of an eight foot ogre who seemed to weigh as much as eight-hundred pounds running away with the unicorn's long silver horn in his left hand.

"There he is!" the unicorn exclaimed.

The lion gave a fierce ear shattering roar which made the ogre stop and turn around, and then the Lion leaped at him and began to wrestle him to the ground, and though the ogre was considerable bigger and heavier than the Lion his anger at him overcame any fear he had in him and he bit and clawed at the ogre's massive frame as he struggled to get to the horn in his hand. Finally, when the Lion made one quick swipe to the ogre's freaky face it screamed in pain and released it's hold on the horn as it brought its hands up to its bloody face.

The Lion snatched the horn and stood and gave a victorious roar as the ogre ran away from him howling and holding his face in his hands.

The Lion stood looking satisfied as the ogre ran from him for a moment, and then turning back to the others he approached the unicorn and clearing his throat he said, "I believe this belongs to you, ma'am," and he carefully set the silvery horn on top of her head and for a moment there was a nearly blinding white and silver light as the horn reattached itself to the unicorn's forehead.

"Oh thank you, dear brave Lion," said the unicorn most gratefully. "You've saved my hor, and perhaps even my life." She rubbed her nose against him tenderly and he blushed as only a modest hero does.

"Oh you were wonderful, Lion!" said Dorothy clapping for him.

"That was the bravest act I ever saw," said Mr. Wogglebug. "You acted just like the King of the Forest should act," he went on pointedly. "Do you think that is not a true show of having real genuine courage inside you?"

"Hey, you're right!" said the Lion in realization.

"I gave you a medal to show you had courage all along," said the Wizard. "Not to give you courage with it, and how could you possibly think otherwise?"

"And you, Tin Man, have also proven you do indeed have a heart," Mr. Wogglebug continued. "For you cried for the unicorn's misery and that means you have a heart, or at least a soul and the two of them exist together. Now I didn't cry just now but I sure felt like it and those kinds of feelings come from my heart just as they come from yours. Now if you didn't have a heart then you wouldn't have even cared for the unicorn's plight."

"You may be right, for I can't imagine not feeling for anything," admitted the Tin Man. "Still I wish I could have my heart clock back for I did so love to hear it tick."

"And my medal," said the Lion. "For I did love to see it always shined in the sun."

"And my diploma," added the Scarecrow. "For I was proud of it."

"Well," said the Wizard. "When we defeat the Witch we'll hopefully be able to recover those items of yours which she took from you."

* * *

Meanwhile in the Witch's castle, Truckle and Tricia had snuck back in the castle through the back way and were currently hiding from the Witch who was in all her fury and wrath.

Now Truckle stood weighing himself on his scale and he frowned at the result he saw. It had been quite a few months since he had last checked his weight and now he saw he weighed just eighty-five pounds, which was fifteen pounds below his normal weight. But what else could he expect when he ran around taking orders from his evil mistress all the time and hardly had time to be as compulsive as he usually was.

"You know, Truckle," said Tricia coming up beside him. "You work too hard for our mistress."

"I think so too!" Truckle said very huffily as he stepped off of the scale with a loud clang.

"You are also more loyal to her than she is worth," Tricia continued. "Come to think of it, we all are. Do you remember what we did before we were her slaves?"

"I do, because I'm older than you," replied Truckle. "We were a free race of creatures able to roam wherever we pleased and to cause as much mischief as we wanted, and without it being under anyone's command either. We just lived as we let live! I do miss those days a lot!" he sighed regretfully.

"So do I, even if I was too young to remember much of them," agreed Tricia.

"But what can we do?" moaned Truckle. "The Witch will never let us go, and she'd blow her stack if we were to run away."

"True," said Tricia thoughtfully. "But why don't we just do it anyway?"

"Huh?" said Truckle.

"I mean there's nothing stopping us from it," explained Tricia. "All we have to do is fly out the window and go as far as we can fly. It's what the Witch least expects us to do so she won't be able to stop us, as long as we go at the right moment."

"Yeah, you're right!" said Truckle perking up noticeably. "We still have our free will above all else and we'll show that witch just how much we really respect her the very next time she gives us an order!"


	6. Chapter 6

The hearty band of travelers went along singing "The Merry Old Land of Oz. Suddenly they came to another fork in the road. This one was a big sign which read:

This is the maze through which no one can turn back from.

All who enter it must face their worst fear within it.

"Well, what do you think? Should we enter the maze?" asked Dorothy to her companions.

The Lion pointed with his tail in the direction leading away from the maze. "My tail seems to think we should skip it and go this way," he said rather eagerly.

The Scarecrow put a finger to his forehead. "I think maybe we should go through the maze and face whatever it may challenge. For if we can't face our worst fear then how are we to face the witch let alone defeat her?"

"Why what a superb idea!" exclaimed the Wogglebug approvingly. "You speak like a philosopher!"

"Okay then. Let's go!" said Dorothy.

So they headed straight ahead after the signpost and soon they came to a large yellow gate which was engraved with the words:

Only those worthy of facing their opponents may enter.

"Are we worthy?" asked the Lion tremblingly.

"I don't know," said the Scarecrow.

Dorothy clicked the heels of the Ruby Slippers on her feet three times while chanting, "Let us go through."

As soon as she had spoken the gates opened wide and allowed them to go through. They entered and they found a great maze which was full of curves which would either lead to dead ends, or if they went the right paths to the exit a long ways ahead of them.

They had only gone a short distance when suddenly six arrows appeared on the ground below them, each one was at the feet of one of them and pointed them a different path.

"Well, what do we do now?" asked Dorothy.

"I suppose we're meant to go wherever these arrows will guide us," said the Scarecrow decisively.

"But the we'll get lost from each other!" the Lion wailed.

"No, we won't," the Scarecrow assured him, "for we will sooner or later have to come through to the end and meet each other at the exit."

"Makes sense to me," agreed the Wogglebug.

So they all headed into the path their own arrow was pointing them in.

Dorothy headed down her path which soon led her away from her friends and the further along she went the windier it seemed to become. Her long braids began to blow back and she after a while began to have trouble keeping her skirt down. The wind began to howl and whistle fiercely and she began to shiver.

Then as she came around a bend she saw what it was that was making the blow so hard. There stood a large and mighty cyclone, or twister, just like the one that had brought her to Oz the first time. It stood unmoving in its place as if some invisible giant hand were holding it out to her. The cyclone began to make her think of her home and her family back in Kansas and a pang of loneliness came over her.

Then suddenly she heard voices coming from within the cyclone. The first seemed to be Uncle Henry's: "Dorothy! You must come home!" Then she heard Auntie Em's: "Dorothy, where are you! We miss you! Come home to us!"

Dorothy felt tears stinging her eyes as she felt she longed to step into the cyclone and being swept back to Kansas where she knew she belonged. She was so tempted she took a small step forward, but then she suddenly thought of her friends and the Wizard and their mission to defeat the Witch which seemed to her what she had come back to accomplish.

She took a breath and reached deep inside as she told herself she could still go home after the Witch was gone by way of her Ruby Slippers and her loved ones would all be waiting there for her. With this in mind she closed her eyes and clicked the heels of the Ruby Slippers together three times and wished:

"Please, take the cyclone away!"

And no sooner had she spoken than did the wind cease and the cyclone had completely vanished when she opened her eyes again.

The Scarecrow meanwhile was walking down his own path. He came eventually to an intersection at which he saw there was a light of something up ahead of him, and thinking this light could possibly be a way out of the maze he took the direction that led to the shortest route to it.

The further along he went the more bright it became around him. Then finally he rounded a bend and came to thing that was making the light, and to his great horror he found that it was a gigantic ball of blazing burning fire, it was at least eight feet tall.

The Scarecrow wanted to run away from the fire ball and so he tried to, but he was shaking from fright so violently that he soon fell with a thump onto the ground. Then as he picked himself up unsteadily the ball of fire suddenly spoke to him in a low hissing voice.

"I am great, and I am terrible. I know you are afraid of me as you may well be. But if you only run past me you will not be harmed."

The Scarecrow stood staring at the ball of fire. Could he really trust it. He felt the answer was no, for if a single spark got loose from it and got to him he could be set ablaze instantly being as his straw was so dry. He stood where he was and trembled so that a few stray straws fell loose and landed by his feet.

The fire spoke to him again. "I see you you are too afraid to trust me, as you may be. But if you will just pull the lever beside of me I shall be doused out and you will be free to go as you please."

The Scarecrow looked and sure enough he could see a lever on the wall beside of the fire ball. Could he really make it so close to the fire, though? He remembered that this was the maze in which no one could turn back from, and then he thought of Dorothy and the others and what if they were in some kind of trouble and needed him?

He patted all of his straw into his body, making sure it was all tucked into place and said, "This is for you, Dorothy!"

He ran up to the lever as fast as he could and pulled down on it so hard he fell to the ground again. But the very next moment there came a downpour of icy water which seeming came straight from the clouds and the fire shrank quickly and then died away, leaving only a lot of sizzling steam in its wake.

The Scarecrow stood up in relief. He looked himself over and saw that he was slightly damp in places and a corner of his jacket was singed very slightly.

_Now I know how the Lion must feel all of the time! _He thought to himself, and went on his way.

The Lion meanwhile was walking down his own path and trying to keep his heart from beating to fast as well as reassure himself he could face anything as he had already proven himself to be the rightful King of the Forest. However he was nevertheless completely unprepared for what he was to face.

He rounded a bend and came out in front of a large brightly colored box with a handle stuck in its side. He stood looking at it curiously, it seemed somehow to be familiar to him but where he had seen it before he couldn't recall.

Then suddenly the handle on the side of the big box began to turn seemingly on its own and music began to come from it. Then before the Lion could blink a giant maliciously grinning head with a long neck which bent and stretched like an accordion popped out of it and came within inches of his face.

The Lion fell down on his backside as he stared in utmost horror at the wickedly grinning clownlike face before him and suddenly he knew exactly what it was and where he had last seen it, for it was the evil Jack-in-the-box he had meant in Popland a long time ago. He remembered how he had teased and taunted the head without fear at the time and now it seemed the head was back for revenge.

"Beware! Beware!" the head shouted at him.

The Lion stood up and roared out of fright, though somehow when he roared he began to feel less afraid. He looked again at the giant Jack-in-the-box and suddenly it seemed just a trifle smaller.

"Ha! I'm not afraid of you!" he shouted back. "You big bad bozo! Why, you're nothing but an oversized children's toy, and that's all you are! In fact, you're more than that! You're a clown! A really ugly clown! Ha ha ha! You're so ugly its funny! Ha ha ha!"

As the Lion was speaking and then laughing the Jack-in-the box villain began growing smaller every second, and it's grin looked less and less evil to him, and its neck seemed to grow shorter as well. Then finally it shrank completely away and went back into the big box it had come out of.

The Lion smirked to himself as he thought of how easily it had been to conquer his greatest fear, and then strutted along on his way again.

The Tin Man meanwhile was walking down a passage which was lined with big thick trees. They soon began to get in his way too much and so he got out his ax and began chopping them away as he went along. He came to one particularly big and thick tree which was directly in front of him, and as cutting this one down seemed to provide a quicker route than cutting down any of the ones around it he got to work chopping as hard and as fast as he could, and as his ax was quite as sharp as a razor it soon fell over with a heavy thud.

Then suddenly he heard a tiny voice cry up to him from below on the ground. He looked down and saw that on one of the larger branches of the tree he had just cut down was a small nest containing a little blue bird surrounded by about four light blue eggs.

"Look what you've done! How could you!" she shrieked. "You've cut down my only home! Now my babies will have no place to grow up in or learn how to fly! What a heartless thing to do! Why it's unforgivable!"

The Tin Man saw at once she was right and tears streamed down his cheeks. "I'm so very sorry!" he sobbed. "Here, I'll find you a new home."

He tenderly picked up the bird's nest and cradled it in his metal hands as he went looking for a good sized tree for it. Then after a long time he finally found it. It was large tree covered with crab apple blossoms. He gently set the nest into the crook of a high branch on the tree.

"There. Now, how's that?" he asked with tears still running down his face.

"It's certainly a much prettier tree than before," said the mother bird. "And my eggs are all still intact. So I suppose I will forgive you now."

The Tin Man was tried to speak but he found he couldn't for his jaws had rusted shut from the tears. Knowing he must get out of here to get his oil can he went on his way again.

Mr. Wogglebug meanwhile was walking down a long passageway which led him into a cavern which was lined with walls which he could see his reflection in, except non of them looked like him, they all varied in shapes and sizes and looked either weird, comical, or ugly. He tried humming to himself to get through it.

Then as he reached the end he came face to face with a long mirror which looked like an ordinary full-length mirror and he saw a straight image in it, except the image still wasn't of himself. It looked like him somewhat, except that he looked very old with pale, sallow, and loose skin which hung down at the sides of his mouth giving the appearance that he was frowning sourly. He saw bits of white hair dotting his face and he was wearing a large pair of glasses over eyes which looked like their sparkle had diminished over the course of a hundred years of hard suffering.

He felt aghast at what he was seeing. None of the reflections he had seen looked like him, but this one for some reason unnerved him most of all. "This can't be me! This doesn't look anything like me! I'm not old I'm young!" he said to himself loudly.

Then he began to realize what he was seeing. _This is my worst fear, is it? I am afraid of getting old? _The image of the older reflection stared back at him with a piercing coldness that almost made him shudder. Then he realized another thing that linked his fears to the image.

_This is what I am afraid will happen to me if I let being thoroughly educated overcome me and revert to arrogance and I will age and forget how to be happy,_ he told himself. He closed his eyes and tried to meditate these thoughts: _Well, I won't let it happen! I will stay young and gay forever and I will always put the love of my friends and the people I care about before all else!_

He opened his eyes again and smiled as he sighed with relief and satisfaction as he saw that the image in the mirror staring back at him now looked exactly like himself.

Just then a door which had been standing invisibly behind the mirror opened and allowed him to exit the cavern.

The Wizard meanwhile walked down his own passage. He held his wand out at the ready, but so far he had seen nothing unusual about him. He felt that his greatest fear was failing to to use his newfound magic at the right time.

He walked down many curves and loops in the road, and then as he rounded a bend someone suddenly appeared in front of him. It was a tall older man, much older than he it seemed as he had a long silver white beard that reached past his chest. He was wearing a cone shaped hat rather like the Witch's except it was blue and had on a matching robe. His eyes seemed to be infinitely wise.

"Who... who are you?" the Wizard asked him stuttering.

"I am Merlin the Great Wizard," he replied in a low soft voice. "I have come to train you."

"Train me? For what may I ask?" asked the Wizard uncertainly.

"For dualing," replied Merlin. "Until now you have only used magic on inanimate objects. Now is the time for something serious." Merlin took out his own wand and continued, "Now the idea of a wizard's dual is take your opponent's wand. Now let us begin!"

Merlin fired the first strike and the Wizard deflected it using his own spell. He fired all the spells he could think of at Merlin's wand, but each time Merlin was able to come around them with yet more powerful spells. Merlin had obviously had experience in dualing and the Wizard was beginning to feel he was hopeless against him. Then suddenly the Wizard remembered the Reversing Spell that Mr. Wogglebug had taught him and he used it and Merlin's wand flew right out of his hand and into the Wizard's own hand. He had won.

"Very good," said Merlin with an impressed smile as he took back his wand. "I can see you are going to do well when the time comes." And with that he vanished in a puff of smoke.

The Wizard stood bewildered at what Merlin had said to him. What did he mean by 'when the time comes'?

The Wizard quickly went the rest of the passage and he eventually came out of it and he found all of his friends waiting for him at the exit.

"I see we've all made it out safely!" he exclaimed in joy and relief. "I hope none of you met with any harm."

"No, not much. Thank Goodness," said the Scarecrow rubbing at his jacket.

"I learned a very valuable lesson from this experience!" declared Mr. Wogglebug.

"The same here," added Dorothy.

"Me too," added the Tin Man.

"Me three!" added the Lion.


	7. Chapter 7

The party of adventures embarked into a thick forest which darkened in its atmosphere the further along they went. It was soon when they came upon a sign posted at the side of the road. The sign was very recognizable as it read:

HAUNTED FOREST  
Castle of the Wicked Witch 1 Mile  
(I'd turn back if I were you!)

"Well, I suppose now we'll go to the castle of the Wicked Witch," stated the Tin Man.

"Well, we've come so far," said Dorothy. "We can't turn back now.

The Lion gave a deep gruff growl of agreement. "I will break down the Witch's gates... and I will show her no mercy!"

"Right you are, Lion!" proclaimed the Wizard. "We are armed and prepared!" He held up his wand in a show of defiance.

"No witch can scare me!" Mr. Wogglebug declared.

"Me neither!" roared the Lion.

Just then they heard a howl which sounded rather like a wolf but much more weary, and then they heard an eerie hooting sound coming from somewhere in the trees. They looked around and watched as mysterious shapes and shadows darted away from their vision.

The Lion gulped and started to shiver. "Like I said, I'm not afraid of anything... except for spooks!"

"Now Lion there's no such thing as spooks!" said the Tin Man irritably.

"The Tin Man is quite right, Lion," agreed Mr. Wogglebug. "Just remember it's all in your mind."

"All in my mind?" the Lion repeated as if he wasn't sure what to believe. "But it all sounds so real and it all makes me feel more like a mouse than a ferocious beast!" he whimpered dejectedly.

"Aww... hmm... Well, you know what I do when I feel scared, lonely, or lost? I hum myself a little tune, or I sing myself a little song, and in this way I tell myself that everything is going to be alright."

"It sounds like a very good idea, Mr. Wogglebug," said Dorothy smiling. "Let's all give it a try."

And so they did. They all sang a song they made up together as they walked onward through the forest and in spite of seeing so many strange and spooky shapes and shadows and hearing so many strange and eerie noises they all kept trying to convince themselves they were not afraid because there was no such thing as spooks.

"There's no such thing as spooks! No such thing as spooks! We don't believe in spooks! We don't believe!" they all chorused in unison.

They seemed to be going along just fine for a while until they suddenly heard a very spine-tingling noise which sounded like "Oooooohhhhh-oooooooohhhh...Waaaaaahhhhh-ahhhhh-ah hhhhhh!"

"Oh my! What was that?" asked Dorothy fretfully.

"I don't know," said the Scarecrow.

"I do believe in spooks! I do!" the Lion muttered under his breath.

Then suddenly there appeared in front of them a gaggle of ghoulishly gruesome ghosts and they all floated freely in the air and waved their transparent arms with long pointed fingers at them and howled and yowled with such menacing looks on their freaky faces they sent everyone's hearts up to their mouths.

The Lion let out a frightened roar and ran away as fast as he could

"Wizard!" Mr. Wogglebug yelled, trying to be heard over all the screaming. "Quickly, the potronous charm I told you about!"

The Wizard held his wand out in front of him and aimed it directly at the center of the ghosts and shouted, "Away with you all!" and instantly a bright silver light shot out from the tip of his wand and seemed to obliterate the ghosts as they vanished and were repelled.

"Oh! Thank you, Wizard!" Dorothy exclaimed as she felt of her fast beating heart.

"I have a feeling we be in for some more fearsome foes in this foul forest," said Mr. Wogglebug. "So be on your lookout everyone."

Dorothy nodded agreement, then she looked around and asked, "Say, has anyone seen the Lion?"

They all looked around and could find no trace of the Lion anywhere near them.

"Oh no!" moaned Dorothy. "The specters must have scared him away!"

"Well, we mustn't waste time now," declared the Wizard. "We must find him."

The Lion meanwhile had run a good distance away from his companions, and he didn't stop until he was fairly out of breath. He rested against a tree and panted and wiped his forehead on the tip of his tail. Then as he looked around him he found he was all alone in the dark and scary forest.

"Oh no! I'm alone! What do I do now! I want Dorothy!" he wailed almost on the brink of tears.

Then he remembered what Mr. Wogglebug had said to him: _Whenever I am scared, lonely, or lost, I hum a little tune or sing a little song and in this way I tell myself everything will be alright._

The Lion decided to try it. "I'm alone, and chilled to the bone. It's night, and there is no light is sight, and it seems nothing's right. I want to run away and yet I choose to stay. 'Cause everything will be alright as long as I keep my fears in tight, and look for a way out in sight, and if I come to more horror I will just unleash my mighty roar!"

Then he heard a long low howl come out of nowhere which pierced the night. He shivered violently as if he just wanted to jump out of his skin. And then he saw something moving in the bushes nearby, he looked and saw the form of a dog come out. It was a large hairy dog with pointed ears and a bushy tail.

The Lion grinned uneasily. It seemed to be just a harmless dog. "Here doggie, doggie. Nice doggie, doggie," he crooned as he reached out to stroke its head.

However just as he reached out the dogs eyes began to glow an eerie yellow and it snapped long vicious teeth at the Lion's paw. The Lion snatched it away just in time and realized to his horror that this was no ordinary dog, this was a wolf, a werewolf!

He was frozen stiff again for he knew what would happen if the werewolf was to bite him. Just then the werewolf let another long howl.

The Lion smirked, "So you think you're a good howler, do you? Well, just listen to this!" He pulled his head back and let out a loud and high howl in imitation of the werewolf's.

He had apparently scared the werewolf for it let out a loud whimper as it cringed and then it ran away from him as fast as he could have run away from it.

The Lion felt momentarily satisfied, but then he realized he was still all alone and there were surely more dangers in the woods.

"I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid," he said to himself. "Even though I am I can pretend! I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid."

He started walking back in the direction he thought he had just run from, all the while trying to talk himself into being brave. "I am the King! I am the King. Hear me sing when I roar! I sing a royal encore! I am the ruler of the forest, not the circus! Nothing frightens me! Not even bats in the tree! Bats in the tree?"

He looked up, and sure enough, he saw a swarm of bats hanging upside down on the gnarled branches of an old dead tree. Slowly their beady yellow eyes opened and one of them got up and spread its wings it flew out in front of him. The suddenly it evaporated in a puff of pink smoke and before the Lion blinked there was standing in its place a tall pale figure dressed in a fancy black tuxedo with fangs hanging from the corners of his mouth.

"Greetings my feline friend!" it said in a deep Transylvanian accent. "How are you tonight? Are you cold? Well, I can warm you up. How is your neck, does it hurt? Well, maybe I can ease the pain! Come here, come here. Don't be scared, come here!"

As the obvious vampire was beckoning the Lion closer to him, the Lion was glancing around left and right for some way out of being bitten this time. He spotted a patch of large shiny dark purple berries growing in between them. He stepped forward cautiously and slyly reached out with his left paw and plucked a few of them. Then as the vampire leaned in ever so slowly and slyly with its fangs barring little by little the Lion made a great swipe with his paw and smacked the vampire in the mouth with the poisonous berries.

The vampire gagged and sputtered as he wiped frantically at his mouth and fangs. "You'll pay for this someday!" he said furiously. Then he transformed into a bat again and took off, still choking violently all the while.

The Lion gave a laugh of victory at his cleverness and then strutted along his way, while singing to himself, "I'm standing tall, the bravest of all! If on courage I must call I'll keep trying! I'm a lion, and that's not lyin'"

Then suddenly from out of nowhere again he heard a soft "Oooohh, oooohh," sound, rather like the one that had made him run away before. He knew he couldn't run away this time though. He had to be brave and strong if he was to find his friends again.

"Don't be fooled, it's not for real!" he told himself loudly and marched ahead in a dignified manner.

Then he suddenly saw something creeping behind the trees, it was white and transparent and it gave him a sick feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. He slowly inched his way ahead as he tried to escape it as it was slowly billowing closer and closer to him from behind the trees.

Then suddenly it leaped out in front of him with a loud "Boo!" He saw that it was a tall ghostlike figure wearing white robes with a hood concealing its face, and as the Lion looked in he could see nothing inside the hood just as there were no feet at the bottom of the robes.

The Lion was momentarily scared stiff, and then he was suddenly angry that this ghostly fellow had the nerve to sneak up on him and yell at him like that.

"I'll teach you to sneak up on me, ya big ol' wind bag!" he roared as he seized the figure around the waist and folded him up like a freshly washed towel and then tossed him far out into the forest where he disappeared from sight.

The Lion stood with his hands on his hips, and then suddenly he heard the sound of footsteps coming up behind him. He bared his teeth and claws and briskly whirled around ready to roar. But then his expression quickly changed to one of utmost joy and relief as he instantly recognized all of his friends who had just found him.

"Dorothy! Wizard! You've found me! I missed you so!" he exclaimed very emotional.

"Lion, are you alright?" asked Dorothy, very concerned. "Were you scared?"

"Nah! Me! Nah! Not at all!" he said with confidence. "Nothing can scare the King of the Forest!"

Just then Dorothy reached behind her neck and screamed in pain. "Ooh! Something has got me!"

"Let me at him! Let me at him!" the Lion exclaimed as he turned to pummel Dorothy's attacker. However the moment he turned around his mane got caught by the very thing which was gripping at Dorothy which was the gnarled branches of the trees and the trees themselves had very frightening looking faces in their barks with knotty eyes and open mouths twisted in a terrible scowl.

"Quickly, Wizard! Before they get us all!" Mr. Wogglebug exclaimed as he tried to get out of the way of a long twisted branch that was reaching for him.

"Release them!" the Wizard shouted as he aimed his wand at the trees and a pale white light shot out of it and not only did the trees release their hold on them but their branches became untwisted and the ugly faces in the middle of their barks vanished without leaving a trace of them.

"Why, I do believe this forest has been bewitched! Mr. Wogglebug declared as he looked on in bewilderment.

"The Witch of the West probably had something to do with it I bet!" Dorothy said.

"Indeed," agreed the Wizard. "She could have cast the spell over this forest so as to keep unwanted visitors away from her castle."

"Well, if she thinks she can keep us away, well, we've got news for her!" the Lion exclaimed with a hint of a roar in him as he puffed out his chest.

"Come on now!" said the Wizard. "Let's get a move on, and do let me know if you see anything else that looks suspicious."

So they all linked their arms in each others and stayed close together as they marched further onward.

After a while the Lion gave a small roar which sounded halfway frightened and he pointed ahead of them at a hollow tree. The others followed and saw a group of bright red glowing eyes looking at them from out of the hole in the tree's bark, and then they began to see something moving like the flapping of wings from within.

"Oh dear! Those are horrid bats!" Dorothy wailed as she covered her eyes with her hands.

"Hmm... I don't know about that," said the Wizard thoughtfully. "Why don't we take a better look, shall we?"

He aimed his wand at the red glowing eyes in the hollow of the tree as he cried out, "Reveal!" and instantly a pale bluish light shot out from the tip of the wand and encircled around the tree. Then right before their eyes all of the creepiness of it faded away and in its place was a perfectly ordinary hollow tree that was growing green leaves and they now saw that nested in the hollow of the tree's bark was a large snowy white owl who was feeding three little baby owlets.

"Aw, how cute!" Dorothy said. "Why I believe this forest must be beautiful underneath the Witch's spell."

"And if you would just look beneath our enchantment you might beauty in us," said a few small voices from somewhere on the ground by their feet.

"Oh my!" said Dorothy looking down. "They're talking... What exactly are you?"

"We used to be the biggest and prettiest flowers in all of Oz," said one of the ugly and crumpled grayish brown things that stood in front of the tree. "Then that old Witch cast her bewitchment curse upon the forest and the sun hasn't shone here since and we can't flourish without sunlight you know, and it hardly ever rains here anymore either there's just a lot of gray clouds in the sky and never any difference."

"Oh you poor little things!" said the Tin Man on the verge of tears. "Wizard couldn't you try to bring the sun back to them?"

"Well, I... That sounds like a very complicated kind of spell and I really don't know if I could succeed if I tried it," the Wizard said doubtfully.

"Come on now," said Mr. Wogglebug. "You can do anything that is the right thing to do as a Wizard if you will just hold the intention of it in your mind... and in this case your heart."

The Wizard looked at his wand and then looked at the ugly brown things which used to be pretty flowers. He closed his eyes and tried to meditate for a few moments and then with his eyes still closed he pointed his wand upward so that it was focused above the tree tops and at they gray and cloud filled sky above them and then he muttered the chant, "Illusious-Reverso!"

Then instantly a pale and golden light flew out of his wand and shot into the sky and the sky was suddenly filled with golden fireworks which began to rain down on them and illuminated everything they touched. Then the clouds parted and the sun came out and cast its light upon everything its rays touched, and then before their eyes the forest was suddenly bright and colorful with tall green grass and birds humming and singing in the trees and butterflies fluttering here and there and looking down they saw that the flowers were no longer brown and dying they were in full bloom and many shades of pink and red and orange and blue and lavender and they were quite as big as sunflowers and were all looking gratefully at them.

"Thank you, Wizard," said one. "You truly are the most wonderful wizard of all of Oz."

Dorothy threw her arms around the Wizard and kissed him on the cheek. "You did really good, Wizard!" she exclaimed.

"I knew you had it in you all along!" Mr. Wogglebug said as he patted the Wizard proudly on the back.

The Wizard couldn't help but blush at all of this praise which he never thought himself worthy of. "Well... come on now," he said finally as he cleared his throat. "We've got a Witch to vanquish!"

They moved onward through the now disenchanted forest though it still carried a certain enchantment of its own, and once they came to the end of the long mile to the Witch's castle they found a great gorge before them which was to wide and deep for them to pass.

"Oh dear!" said Dorothy in despair. "I don't remember seeing this gorge here, but then the last time I came here I was being carried by flying monkeys."

"Wizard, do you think you could do something about this problem here, too?" inquired the Scarecrow hopefully.

"Hmm... I think so," replied the Wizard who had now gained more confidence in himself. He stretched his arm out as far as it could and aimed his wand out as he chanted, "Arcoverbera!"

Then before their very eyes a rainbow appeared and it settled itself onto each end of the gorge and formed a bridge just big enough for them to cross on.

"Ah! Bravo my friend!" exclaimed Mr. Wogglebug patting the Wizard on the back again. "Now that is really using your power within!"

They all crossed the rainbow bridge made by the Wizard and headed up to the Witch's foreboding castle.


	8. Chapter 8

The Witch was in a blinding rage as she looked out her castle's tower window and saw Dorothy and her band of friends approaching.

"Blast! Blast that wretched girl and her measly friends!" she screeched. "Truckle! Round up the monkeys and get them!" she ordered.

"No I will not, your wickedness!" Truckle said defiantly. "Me and all the other monkeys have had enough of you and your mean ways with us and we are revolting!" As he spoke all of the other winged monkeys flew in front of them and stripped themselves of their uniforms and threw them at the Witch declaring their independence of her. Then they flew away out of the window with Truckle and Tricia leading the way and holding hands.

"No! You can't do this to me! Come back!" she hollered as she rushed to the window and sent a firebolt after them, but they were already to far away for it to get to them.

"They may have escaped but you won't!" the Witch heard Dorothy's voice behind her back.

Turning around she laughed wickedly and said, "What can you mangy mogles do to me? So Dorothy," she said menacingly. "You have come to surrender yourself have you?"

"I have no intention of surrendering!" exclaimed Dorothy.

"Oh Come now," said the witch smiling vilely. "Just hand over the Ruby Slippers and everything will be alright."

"If you want Dorothy you'll have to get past me first!" declared the Wizard as he stepped defensively in front of Dorothy.

The witch laughed even more wickedly than before. "Well, if it isn't Oz, the great and powerful humbug! What can you a has-been entertainer do to me?"

"I can do anything I want to do now that I have my wand and am not afraid to use it," he said firmly.

"Well, then I challenge you to a dual!" exclaimed the Witch.

"You're on!" exclaimed the Wizard with his wand drawn and aimed.

The Witch fired the first firebolt at the Wizard but he was ready for it and he repelled it with his own spurt of light from his wand so that it shot back at the Witch and struck her squarely in the nose.

The Witch clutched at her face and became incensed and then the Wizard fired another burst of white magic at her but she uncovered her face at the last moment and shot it back at him and it struck him in the chest knocking him off his feet, but he still clutched onto his wand and got right back up firing another magic burst at the Witch.

This one came unexpectedly and it her directly in the center and she fell backwards and landed on her bum and was now further enraged and fired another lighting bolt at the Wizard and as it was also so unexpected for him it caught him right between the eyes.

He let out a yell but he fired back at her again even with his eyes closed. Unfortunately because his eyes were closed he missed the Witch altogether and instead his white firebolt struck a small glass covered cabinet nearby which just happened to hold the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion's treasures and the three of them could do nothing but watch helplessly as their former possessions were blown to smithereens by the force of the bolt.

"No! My Diploma!" the Scarecrow yelled as he put his hands to his face.

"No! My heart!" the Tin Man yelled with tears welling in his eyes.

"No! My medal!" the Lion roared in agony as he covered his eyes.

The witch laughed the most heartless and inhuman laugh you could ever imagine at this. "I told you you'd never get your prizes back, didn't I!" she laughed uproariously with evil mirth as loud as she could.

The Wizard was much angered at what the Witch had just caused him to do and he retaliated by sending a great zap of white magic at her head. However, at the last possible moment she ducked her head back and it caught on only her hat and burned it to a sizzle of stitches.

Now the Witch was as furious as a witch could get and she did the most wicked thing she could at the moment, she threw a firebolt right at the Wizard's hand which was holding onto the wand and he never even saw it coming and so his hand was forced open and he dropped his wand with yell of pain.

As soon as he had dropped his wand the Witch levitated it over to her and took into her own possesion. "Ahahhaahhahaaha!" she cackled gleefully. "I win! I win! Now your wand is mine and not yours!" she declared. "Now Dorothy give me the Ruby Slippers or I will turn the Tin Man into scrap metal, the Lion into a rug, the Scarecrow into a mattress, and the big bug into food for the spiders here!"

Dorothy saw that they were all trapped and it seemed there was no other way out.

"No, Dorothy!" the Scarecrow pleaded. "You mustn't give up the Ruby Slippers!"

"Don't worry, Dorothy," whispered Mr. Wogglebug. "It's your choice and whatever you decide I know it will be the right decision."

Dorothy looked into his warm and sparkly eyes which she saw were full of confidence for her, then she looked around at all her other friends who had fear written all over their faces, and at the Wizard who was hanging his head in despair as if it was all his fault.

"I... surrender!" she said as she bent down and took off the Ruby Slippers one after the other and then handed them over to the Witch.

"They're mine! At last they're mine! If sister could see me now!" she cackled with triumph at her achievement and then took off her other shoes and put the Ruby Slippers onto her green smelly feet. She clicked the heels three times as she shouted, "Now I will do everything I said do to you and send Dorothy to-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

All of sudden the Witch was caught on fire from her feet and burning upward until she was totally engulfed in flames and soon she was nothing but a big ball of fire and then the fire went out as suddenly as it had started and all that remained of the Witch was a pile of ashes and the Ruby Slippers and the Wizard's wand lay at the sides.

Everyone immediately rushed over to the sizzling pile of ashes that used to be the witch and stared for a moment in disbelief.

"I can't believe it!" Dorothy gasped. "She's really gone this time, she has to be!" She reached down and took back her Ruby Slippers and put them on again.

The Wizard also picked up his wand again and then looked sorrowfully to the Scarecrow, Lion, and Tin Man. "I really am very sorry about your things, you all," he said. "I know how valuable they were to you."

"It's okay, Wizard," the Scarecrow assured him. "It was an accident, and besides we now realize you really never gave us anything we didn't already have, for we've had everything we needed all along.

Then suddenly a bright pink bubble appeared through the window and grew until it reached the top of the ceiling and then it vanished and in it's place stood none other than Glinda the good witch of the North.

"Glinda!" everyone exclaimed in unison.

"I've come to congratulate you all on your triumph over evil. You can now be sure the Witch is gone for good and she'll never come back again," she said smiling at them all.

"Thank you, Glinda," said Dorothy. "But there is still something I don't understand. Why did the Ruby Slippers destroy the Witch anyway?"

"Because you had worn them for so long they had grown accustomed to you and the goodness and kindness that fills your heart filled them as well and increased their power and so when you made the ultimate sacrifice in giving up so much power to save your friends their power increased tenfold and so when the witch put them on they had become completely intolerable to wickedness and unkindness and so the witch essentially had been destroyed by you and the power of love," Glinda explained simply.

"Of course," said Mr. Wogglebug. "I could have told you that."

"Well, now that the witch is dead there is no point in staying here," said Dorothy. "I should go home to Kansas. Aunt Em and Uncle Henry must be worried sick about me."

"When you go home you will find it to not be so," said Glinda. "For when you arrive back in Kansas no time will have passed from between when you left and when you came back, and this was why everyone thought your first trip here was all just a dream. Which is one reason why Oz must be kept a secret from the world you live in."

"Very well, Glinda," said Dorothy understanding. But when I go home where will you all go?" she asked her friends around her.

"I will go back to Patchwork Land to live with that pretty patchwork girl Scraps we met, remember?" said the Scarecrow.

"Yes, I remember," said Dorothy. "I'm sure she'll be happy to see you again."

"I will go back to Mechanica to live with Miranda the Milkmaid, just as I promised her I would," said the Tin Man.

"Good," said Dorothy. "I'm sure she will be happy to have you back there also."

"I will also fulfill my duties and return to the forest where I am King and rule over all the animals there," declared the Lion in a kingly voice.

"Good for you, Lion," said Dorothy. "I'm sure you'll rule them with justice. But what about you, Wizard?" she asked turning to him.

"Well... I..." the Wizard stammered uncertainly.

"The Wizard shall return to the Emerald City where he will rule over the Land of Oz like he did before, only better this time because he is now a fully equipped wizard," Glinda said.

"Me? Rule the Land of Oz?" the Wizard gasped in disbelief at Glinda's speech. "I really don't think I can."

"It was for that reason why I know you can," replied Glinda with certainty. "You'll just do your best, and if you ever need me I'll be there," she added smiling sweetly at him.

"And what about you, Mr. Wogglebug," Dorothy asked her newest friend.

"I shall return to my own time and space of Oz," he said. "Though I am always on the move it seems," he added chuckling. "I just love to travel."

"Well, good luck," said Dorothy. "Will we ever see you again?"

Mr. Wogglebug smiled. "I guarantee it," he promised.

Dorothy put her arms around him and gave him a gentle hug. "Thank you so much for everything. You were a wonderful teacher for the Wizard," she said kissing his warm cheek.

"Just doing my job," he said as he hugged her back. "Goodbye Dorothy, take care of yourself."

Dorothy then turned to hug the Scarecrow. "Goodbye Scarecrow," she said kissing his cloth cheek.

"Goodbye Dorothy," said the Scarecrow. "I'll think of you all the time."

Dorothy then turned to hug the Lion. "Goodbye Lion," she said kissing his fuzzy cheek.

"Goodbye Dorothy," he muttered. "I think I'm too choked up to say much," he said as though trying to hold back tears."

"Be brave, there's a dear," said Dorothy stroking his mane.

Dorothy then turned to hug the Tin Man. "Goodbye Tin Man," she said kissing his metal cheek.

"Goodbye Dorothy," he said, letting his tears fall freely. "I never like saying goodbye."

"Ah! Here Tin Man," said Mr. Wogglebug. "You better take my handkerchief." He took a large embroidered handkerchief from his vest pocket and handed it to the Tin Man.

"Yes, thank you," the Tin Man said as he accepted it.

"But there is no need to cry," said Dorothy. "I'll come back again."

"You will?" asked the Tin Man as he dried his tears.

"Of course I will," she assured him. "After all, I've got the Ruby Slippers and they can take me anywhere."

"Oh! That's right!" exclaimed the Tin Man with joy and relief.

"Goodbye, and thank you all for being my friends," Dorothy said just before she closed her eyes and tapped the heels of the Ruby Slippers together three times and muttered the chant, "There's no place like home."

She felt herself being whirled away as if she were in a tornado again, and then when she opened her eyes she found she was standing in the middle of her bedroom again at night and she was also in her nightgown once again though she still had the Ruby Slippers on. She took them off and put them back into the closet where she had first found them again and then she got back into her bed and went back to sleep.

The next morning she was awakened by the crowing of the rooster outside. She yawned and stretched and then got dressed and came into the kitchen for breakfast where she found her Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, and the farmhands Hunk, Hickory, and Zeke, already seated.

As she took her seat at the table Aunt Em sat a plate of pancakes in front of her and asked, "Dorothy, did you have any strange dreams last night, dear?"

"No, Aunt Em," she replied simply. "None at all."


End file.
